Eleven more people have been recognized as political prisoners in Belarus, the Human Rights Center Viasna reported. They are Dzmitry Novikau, Natallia Krauchak, Raman Karpau, Ivan Petranevich, Dzmitry Kondrus, Ihar Dziegtsiaronak, Uladzimir Mahronau, Aliaksei Chareshneu, Alyaksandr Yaudakha, Zmicier Kolas, and Vatslau Bahdanovich. All of them have been deprived of liberty in connection with alleged interaction with initiatives that the authorities have designated as “extremist formations.”
Among them are publishers and book distributors detained during the February wave of repression against Belarus’s book industry. Vatslau Bahdanovich is the founder of the publishing house Tekhnalogiya, which had been releasing books since the late 1980s. Zmicier Kolas is the founder of the publishing house of the same name, which specialized in Belarusian-language translations of world literature. Alyaksandr Yaudakha has been involved in book distribution since the 2000s and worked with many independent publishing houses.
Human rights defenders demanded the immediate release of all those named, as well as all political prisoners in Belarus, and called for an end to political repression.
